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I bought an iPhone 6 and I gave my old iPhone (the 5c) to my niece. Had it done at the AT&T store. The sales rep changed her # to my old phone and my old # to my new phone. I jumped on the iCloud and was able to transfer all photos, messages, etc onto my new iPhone.

The first time my niece plugs in her iPhone 5c (which was my old iPhone), all of a sudden, all of her contacts replace mine on my iPhone 6 and now we both have the same contacts - hers.

I logged into the iCloud on my laptop and all that's there is her contacts. Mine aren't there. Did I lose all my contacts? Is there any way I can get them back?

All my text messages are still on my new phone, but the vast majority of them only list a phone # not a name. So maybe I can figure out (in most cases) who these texts were with but it's still a major chore to re-enter everyone's name - not to mention other things I kept in my contacts for my friends such as email address and street address (all of which I will have to ask for or remember).

Is there anything I can do?

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    Make sure that you either clear the memory of the 5c and set it up again as a new phone. Short of doing that make sure you go into settings on that phone and change the appleId in all of the following sections of Settings: iCloud, iTunes and App store, Messages, Facetime, Game Center, and possibly Mail Contacts and Calenders. Yes, there are at least 5 logins that need to be updated if you are going to pass the phone on to someone else without clearing the memory and setting it up as a new phone (the best method). BTW..It's not bizarre at all, it did exactly want was expected.
    – Tyson
    Commented Jun 13, 2015 at 1:27
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    Did you log out of iCloud on your old phone (the 5c) before handing it over to your niece?
    – nohillside ♦
    Commented Jun 13, 2015 at 7:03

1 Answer 1

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You can try to see if your phone had saved a backup to your computer upon last sync. This would mean restoring the phone from backup, which isn't always ideal depending on the situation.

Unfortunately, it's not easy because iCloud was likely left enabled on the old phone, which synced them up to the cloud, and then down to your phone.

Else, here is a suggestion provided from the Apple discussion forums:

(BEFORE YOU BEGIN, MAKE SURE YOUR ICLOUD ACCOUNT IS SIGNED OUT OF THE OTHER PHONE!!!!)

  1. Ensure the device is connected to your local network.
  2. Start the restore from iCloud back up.
  3. Allow the devices settings to restore (watch for the confirmation of completion).
  4. As the apps begin to restore pull the connection to your router WAN port (the one that goes to the telephone point/cable modem).
  5. Wait for the time out confirmation.
  6. Navigate to settings > iCloud and turn off contact syncing (keep contacts when prompted).
  7. Reconnect the router to the internet and let the restore process complete.
  8. Delete any iCloud contacts from iCloud.com on a computer.
  9. Navigate to settings > iCloud and turn on contact syncing (merge contacts when prompted).
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